Title: How to Manage Problem Employees: A Step-by-Step Guide
for Turning Difficult Employees into High Performers
Author: Shepard, Glenn
Subjects: Problem Employees; Personnel Management
Call Number: 658.3045 S547H 2005
ISBN: 9780471730439
Number of Pages: 198 p
Book Description:
(from the back cover of the book)
“A
manager’s guide to hiring, firing, and motivating employees.” A comprehensive
how-to for employers, How to Manage Problem Employees covers all the
people-management skills managers need-from how to set new hires up for
success, to properly structuring compensation packages that maximize employee
work ethic, to dealing with employee problems before they take a toll on your
business.
Author
Glenn Shepard doesn’t bother with political correctness and he doesn’t pull any
punches when it comes to employees. He has no patience for negative
behavior-and neither should you. He’ll show you how to handle every kind of
problem employee-gossips, backstabbers, hypochondriacs, emotional basket cases,
rebels with authority problems, and everyone else. And when you have to,
Shepard shows you how to fire employees fairly and legally. There’s more:
-Fostering a good work ethic
-Motivating slow or lazy employees
-Being the best manager you can be
-Creating a healthy work environment
-Avoiding problem hires
-Avoiding legal pitfalls
-Using discipline in the workplace
-Rewarding good employees
How to
Manage Problem Employees helps managers run a productive department that people
will want to be a part of, while building a business culture that encourages
success. It empowers managers to be tougher, fairer, and better-but also shows
them how to encourage the same qualities in their employees If it’s time for
you to get tough with problem employees and take your business back, this book
is the answer.
My Read:
This is the
second book of the series, How to***: A Step-by-Step Guide*** by Glenn Shepard.
I enjoy and appreciate the books so much that I would like to buy them all and
shelve them on my desk; they are Bibles on management and self-growth. The
reason for the self-growth is if one person would like to lead and live a life
of success and fulfillment, she has to complete her life with goal
achievements, meaningful mission accomplishments, and with a strong wish to help
others.
There are
some points I found helpful and inspiring in this book:
-I love what I do. It’s more than a career; it’s my calling.
I didn’t choose my job; it chose me. So what about you? Do you have conviction?
Do you have what it takes to be a strong manager? Are you sure this is what you
want to do? Are you prepared to make our country stronger and better? If so,
let’s get you ready to rumble. (p27) Those are questions assisting a person to
ponder upon critical aspects and dig deeper inside her to bring out strengths
and hidden potentials she has been holding.
-Managers must know their limits. You can’t change someone’s
character, make an unpleasant person pleasant, or make a person care. You can
only set boundaries, reward the good behavior, and punish the bad. When people
refuse to play along, they’ll be ejected from the game. (p36) This point is
hard, in my eye, to be really put into practice. The bad behaviors take at
least five times of energy of a manager to deal with than the good behaviors.
At least five times! It’s like an energy vampire sucking your soul, spirit, and
energy every day you walk into the workplace you should have enjoyed and
cherish being in. How to righteously punish the bad and award the good to the
point is an art and mastery challenges every manager who is committed and
dedicated to what she aspires being a great leader.
-Don’t hire applicants who won’t fit your company’s
personality. The lesser of the two evils is to be slightly understaffed. Having
too much to do and too few employees to get it done forces us to be more
resourceful. It’s human nature to resist being asked to produce more. When in
doubt, it’s better to not hire enough employees than to hire too many.
(p54-p55) This reminds me of something so true in reality. When a person is
struggling to meet the ends, her hidden creativity and potentials would be
provoked helping her to discover solutions to get what she is in need. In my
childhood, there was no toy in the house. My playmates and I would make
something fun to play with in the neighborhood: bamboo guns, playing cards made
of tin caps, rocks and pebbles played as if they were play cards, and more fun
handmade toys created by and with plants, dirts, and any trashes the adults
abandons. Limited resources invite and create imagination and innovation.
-Entitlement v.s incentives: entitlements destroy a work
ethic. Earned incentives help build a work ethic. (p74) People tend to take
things for granted without questioning themselves what they have done to
“deserve” the things given to them. It’s a pity that entitlement, to me, is the
killer for happiness and barrier for success. No pain, no gain. Work ethic is a
tough challenge in these days. I simply didn’t get it. I have asked myself
plenty of times why people keep coming to the workplace they hate and dislike.
Good people deserve a place to work to their potentials to help others and to
self-actualize to live a meaningful and enchanted life. It’s a playground for
good people to share good experiences and exchange healthy spirits to enrich
their soul and enhance their mind.
Helping others is the only way I have found to the path of
happiness. It’s a path you have to walk yourself.
-I’ve never fired anyone but I have helped employees make
the decision they’ve already made for both of us. (p28) Managers need to hold
all employees accountable, but the need is even stronger with passive people
who have built their lives around avoiding blame. (p97) Does the following
saying sound familiar to you: “That’s not fair.” “You’re being mean to me.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” It’s never their fault. And they are the backstabbers and
snitches the author describes in the book. To avoid blame, those negative
employees tend to work less and place their focus, time, and energy on seeking
their coworkers’ wrongdoings. It’s natural for a person to eventually make some
mistakes if she is engrossed at tasks and focused on meeting goals. Time is the
essence for a hard working person whose mind sets on goal achieving and stays
in the mode of competition with self and others.
It’s
interesting to learn about some terms the author uses in this book: the passive
individual, the aggressive individual, the passive-aggressive individual, and
the assertive individual. At the last chapter, the author provides a
compilation of issues he is asked about most often in his seminars. They are:
-Bad Attitudes
-Blaming Others
-Breaking the Chain of Command
-Bring Personal Problems to Work
-Carelessness
-Cell Phones
-Character and Integrity
-Cheating on Time Sheets
-Chronic Arguing
-Chronic Complaining and Whining
-Conflicts between Coworkers
-Crying
-Cyber Loafing
-Dropping the Ball
-English as a Second Language
-Employee Theft
-Friends
-Gossiping
-Group Gripe Sessions
-High-Maintenance Employees
-Hypochondriacs
-Indecisiveness
-Insubordination
-Irresponsibility
-Lame Ducks
-Laziness
-Loaning Money to Employees
-Lying
-Motivating Slackers
-Perfectionism
-“Poor Pitiful Me” Syndrome
-Resistance to Change
-Slow Pokes
-Task Avoidance
-Tattletales
-That’s Not in My Job Description
-Toxic Personalities
-Ungratefulness
-Workaholism
-Working on Holidays
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